I happened to walk by your book today and knew I had to read it. I bought it and a few hours later am more than half way through and crying like crazy. I had to stop and come look up your website. My husband and I do not have any children but have loved many dogs. Right now we have 7.  While they are not necessarily all ours, we take care of and love them all. We moved on to a 90 acre farm to run it for other dog loving people who had through the years taken in many strays and abused dogs. At that time we only had one of our own. We loved them all immediately but one in particular became very close to us and we decided if we ever moved again, she would go with us. She is approximately 5 and a blue heeler. Her name is Matilda. A few months later someone , we believe, dumped a miniature beagle here and she almost overnight became part of me. She had heart worms at the time and we have had to have her treated twice at $1000.00 a pop. She is due to be checked again in about a month and I don’t know what I will do if she still has them.. Her name is Sadie. Then there is Gus, Augustus McCray is his full name as Lonesome Dove is my husband’s favorite movie. He is a border collie mix. To tell his story I must back up a little and tell you about the two who died.

Ten years ago we were christmas tree shopping when we saw a beautiful German Shepard dog in a strip mall parking lot that looked lost or abandoned so we pulled in and asked in a store and they said she had been living there for a while but no one could get near her. We went back for three nights feeding her each time and getting closer to her and finally on the third night we were able to get her in the truck and take her home. We are pretty sure she had been abused but she was a wonderful, loving, very protective dog. Her name was Ginny. We got her on Dec. 20th. One year later to the day my husband was walking her at the park like he always did when Gus showed up all skinny and sad looking. Gus and Ginny fell in love at first sight and so did my husband. Gus came home to live with us that day against my will but within 3 days I was in love. One year later to the day my Husband called me at work and said he had an early Christmas present for me and when I got home it was a 130 lb. German Shepard named John Cooper that he had picked up at the shelter after he saw his picture at a vets office. We called him Cooper and he was a big old teddy bear that loved us with all his heart and soul.

After we had Ginny for about 6 or 7 years she developed something that is just like MS in humans. It has a long medical term but is known as German Shepard disease. She started losing use of her back legs and the vet said we would have to eventually put her down. She lived about another year and when she started having problems standing and walking she seemed to become very depressed and we finally knew it was time as we couldn’t bear to see her suffer. We put her down on our anniversay and it was the hardest thing we ever did. We both cried for days. A couple of years later in about 2004 Cooper died of what they think may have been a heart attack as he was so large and overweight and would get very excited when anyone came on our property. We came home from work one day to find him dead and it nearly killed us. Ginny and Cooper were both creamated and reside in urns on my mantle as I can’t bear to leave them behind somewhere I may move from. That left us with just Gus until we moved out here to the farm and inherited a whole new family.

We now have Wiley, a big goofy shephard mix, Mikey who probably has some coon dog in him and who was severly abused before he came to live here. Someone actually shot his tail off. No one could touch him when we moved here and now he comes in the house and will lay on the couch with me sometimes. Katy is an australian shephard that belongs to a guy that works here at the farm one day a week but can’t keep her where he lives so she lives here and he sees her on saturdays and we love and take care of her the rest of the week. Then there is Gus, Matilda, and Sadie who I already spoke of. About three months ago my husband came home with a blue heeler puppy that could be Matilda’s twin. This is the first puppy we have ever had. All our other dogs came house broke. Her name is Maggie and she is a handful. She is beautiful though and keeps all the other dogs on their toes. I’m not sure what would have happened to me and my husband if Ginny hadn’t come along when she did as we had just found out we couldn’t have kids due to the fact I was diagnosed with cancer but Ginny and the rest of the gang made our lives more full and wonderful than I could ever imagine. I feel your pain more than you know and my philosophy about having to make the decision about putting a dog down is that no matter how hard it is, it would be twice as hard to watch them suffer. They love us unconditionally and the least we can do for them is make sure they never suffer a day even if it is the hardest thing you ever have to do. Your book is wonderful and made me remember Ginny and Cooper a little extra today.

Thank You,
The photo below is of Gus and Sadie who always sleep together.

Teri from TN